Washington County staff outline child welfare, behavioral health and economic support services

Julie Driscoll, Washington County chief health and human services officer, gave new committee members an overview of the department’s work and said the board will receive deeper briefings over the coming months. "I'm Julie Driscoll. I'm the chief health and human services officer," she told the committee.

Cora Klein, division manager for Children and Families, described the division’s three main program areas and staffing. "Last year we got 847 total reports, and the 256 screened in means out of those 847 reports, 256 reports we took action on," Klein said, describing child abuse and neglect intake and investigations under Wisconsin statutes. She told the committee her team currently staffs about 30 people and licenses 38 foster homes to provide temporary placements when children cannot safely remain at home.

Committee members pressed staff on placement capacity. Supervisor Stewart asked whether residential treatment facilities are located in the county. Klein and Driscoll said placements can be in Wisconsin or out of state when specialized beds are needed and that finding appropriate openings for high‑need youth can be difficult; they emphasized residential care is a last resort. "We try our best," Klein said, noting the county relies on community partners and in‑home programs to prevent removal when possible.

Doug Bry, behavioral health division manager, outlined the division’s four teams, including acute care/crisis intervention (24/7 phone support, mobile response and a deputy‑clinician core response unit) and a pilot pairing crisis staff with a West Bend police officer. "We started, we're piloting something with West Bend right now as well, where we have a crisis staff going out with a West Bend officer," Bry said, describing the effort to respond in community settings and gather pilot data.

Bry also described outpatient walk‑in hours (three days per week) and case management goals to help clients stay independent in the community. He said psychiatry appointments for new patients are typically available within two to three weeks, a scheduling performance he characterized as strong compared with regional norms.

Renee Zagle, economic support manager, summarized the division’s work administering Medicaid, FoodShare, child care assistance and related programs and described the county’s participation in a five‑county "Bridal Lakes Consortium" for shared call‑center operations. Zagle cited consortium totals presented to the committee — roughly 64,000 cases across the consortium with about 47,000 applications processed in 2025 — and stressed strict state timelines for eligibility determinations.

Driscoll told the committee the two biggest drivers of the human services budget are out‑of‑home care and inpatient hospitalization costs; she said staff will provide quarterly budget reports and will continue briefing the committee as proposals arrive. The committee did not take policy action on service programs at the meeting; members agreed to more detailed presentations and a potential site tour in a future meeting.